US embassy cable - 02AMMAN5514

UNCLAS AMMAN 005514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR NED SAUMS AND JOHN ELLIS 
STATE PASS USAID FOR ANE/MEA TOM OLIVER 
USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/P.THANOS 
GENEVA FOR WTO DEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, EAID, JO, WTRO 
SUBJECT: JORDAN GPA ACCESSION UPDATE 
 
REF: AMMAN 1366 
 
1.  (sbu)  Jordan's number two trade official, Samer Tawil, 
told econcouns and econoff September 24 that the GOJ has 
nearly completed drafting its initial entities offer for GPA 
accession.  He said the draft should be completed and 
delivered to the Prime Ministry for clearance through the 
cabinet by October 5.  He said Jordan was prepared to 
announce the fact that the draft is before the cabinet for 
approval at the October 7 WTO meeting in Geneva, and would 
pledge to have the offer submitted by the end of October as 
planned.  Tawil appreciated the assistance the ministry had 
received from USAID in developing the data base needed to 
create the offer, and for the legal technical assistance 
provided to help structure the draft. 
 
2.  (sbu)  Comment:  Tawil said the GOJ was interested in 
completing the accession process as quickly as possible. 
Pointing to the beneficial role played by USTR in the 
negotiations for Jordan's WTO accession, Tawil said Jordan 
would welcome and hoped for similar cooperation with USTR in 
moving Jordan's offer through the plurilateral negotiations 
phase once the offer is submitted.  In addition to the 
subjects identified for the Joint Commission by Minister 
Bashir (septel), USTR might want to consider adding GPA 
accession to the Joint Commission agenda. 
GNEHM